It's rare that a coach's first press conference with his new team provides all that much useful information, but Alain Vigneault and the Rangers managed that on Friday.

First, Vigneault said he'll employ zone-matching he used with the Vancouver Canucks. While Vigneault and his staff popularized the technique—which entails the most offensively gifted players getting the lion's share of offensive-zone starts—many teams have adopted its use, to at least some degree.

Like SN's Jesse Spector noted last month, the Rangers would do well to match zones more often. The end result, in all likelihood, will mean more offensive chances for Rick Nash and more defensive focus for, say, Brian Boyle.

As always, that'll be treated as some sort of computer-based witchcraft in some circles, but it's common sense—and even more so for the Rangers, given their makeup.

"(Our) job is to win games, but at the same time we need to get the most out of our players," Vigneault said.

Meanwhile, GM Glen Sather went out of his way to say that he wasn't criticizing the fired John Tortorella, but did say that Tortorella's methods—lots of screaming and blocking shots—were wearing on the roster. That fact crystallized itself after the Rangers' second-round playoff elimination.

"It was getting to be so hard on some of our players," Sather said.

He also used the golden rule of coaching: "Life is a lot easier when you're winning."